Community Matters: Beyond East Palestine
As you have undoubtedly heard by now, a significant environmental disaster recently took place in East Palestine, Ohio, mere feet from the Pennsylvania state line.
A scan of national and international media coverage about this story rightly directs one’s attention to the city of East Palestine. However, often lost in the coverage of this tragedy is the fact that the derailment in East Palestine occurred less than 600 feet from the Beaver County line, implicating residents of our county in substantial and profound ways.
The immediate and long-term consequences of this environmental tragedy are unfolding in real-time, and not only on the Ohio side of the border. Children and families have been displaced, possibly forever. Illness is being reported each day. Dead fish, pets, livestock and other wildlife have been documented. Residents far and wide are worried about contamination in their air, soil and water. And, fueled by a culture that increasingly distrusts institutions, misinformation is being weaponized at the hyperlocal and national levels.
Over the last few weeks, RiverWise, which is the nonprofit organization I lead, has been working to understand how best to respond to needs unfolding on the ground in northwest Beaver County. These efforts are modest at best, and I do not want to suggest that what is described below can begin to address the mountain of need facing some of our neighbors.
Instead, I am sharing what follows to demonstrate the value of nimble community-based organizations that focus on generating community resilience in times of community crisis. Though the work of RiverWise is a wholly inadequate addendum to a much larger story, for those who care about community movement there are nevertheless some modest lessons to learn from reflecting on how RiverWise ― and a growing team of partner organizations ― has quickly mobilized to do what we can with what we have.
Since Feb. 6, RiverWise staff have been on the ground both in East Palestine and in northern Beaver County on a number of occasions. We have also been in ongoing communication and planning with a growing number of organizations committed to helping as they are able. A quick scan of our social media accounts illustrates the list of organizations that have been central to these efforts.
To date, our modest coalition has scheduled residents to testify before the Senate Emergency Preparedness Committee, set up a fundraiser to secure items needed by the community, arranged a community supply drive, aggregated supplies and set up a drop point for community donations, created a simple website that includes an online form to collect unmet needs, produced a flier that we handed out to over 200 residents at a PA Senate hearing, arranged and funded a free food truck for 250 residents and volunteers, interviewed numerous residents about their experience and needs, and begun organizing a community storytelling forum where residents can share their experiences and ongoing needs.
In addition to the activities listed above, RiverWise has committed itself publicly to producing long-form storytelling about the experiences of Beaver County residents as they move through the various stages of recovery. We have already begun capturing and publishing stories of this sort.
And we are actively planning and building the kinds of relationships required to demonstrate the ongoing personal and community impact of this disaster, so that we can show what happens in the life of an affected community after the national media presence goes away and catalog the process of recovering from such a tragedy over the long haul.
The goal of such ongoing storytelling work will be to continue to surface community needs, to identify gaps in services, to communicate resources to those affected by this tragedy, and to share with the broader public how residents have been impacted by this environmental disaster and are finding solutions through advocacy to protect their communities. To accomplish this, we will follow families as they undergo ongoing water, air, and soil testing, bringing their stories to light and highlighting learnings for the broader community and public. We will capture and show their efforts at navigating systems, agencies, and processes set in place to meet their needs. And we will document their experiences, challenges, and insights learned while undergoing such extraordinary circumstances.
We anticipate that such efforts will generate numerous shorter community stories as well as a longer-form documentary video. At each stage of the project, we will utilize local stories to highlight insights of value to other communities, policymakers, environmental advocates and other stakeholders.
While focused on capturing the experiences of Beaver County residents, we anticipate that at least some of what we assemble will be stories for all of America and beyond. More than a mere catalog of unfortunate events, the stories will represent a cautionary tale about the dangers of industry, deregulation, unchecked corporate power, environmental catastrophe, and so much more.
If you have read this far and are wondering how or whether you might step into this unfolding story, let me conclude with four tangible ways that various readers of this column can get more involved.
First, if you are a resident of northwest Beaver County and you are in need of help or are experiencing gaps in services, please go to getriverwise.com/derailment and complete the online form you will find there. RiverWise is committed to elevating gaps in services and doing what we can to help.
Second, if you are a resident of northwest Beaver County and you would like to share your story with our team of storytellers, please send an email to info@getriverwise.com so we can reach out to learn more.
Third, if you are an individual or business who wants to help support ongoing storytelling efforts related to recovery from the derailment, please reach out to info@getriverwise.com and we will get back to you shortly.
Finally, if you would like to contribute to an online fundraiser focused on meeting needs identified by residents of northwest Beaver County, please go to gofundme.com and search for “Beaver County” to find the “Train Derailment Response Fund.” Note that all funds will be used exclusively to meet needs identified by residents of northwest Beaver County.
Never is the value of a community felt more than during a time of crisis. And never is its absence experienced so profoundly as it is during a time of need.
Together, let’s do all we can to assist our neighbors in northwest Beaver County.
Daniel Rossi-Keen, Ph.D., is the co-owner of eQuip Books, a community bookstore in Aliquippa and the executive director of RiverWise, a nonprofit employing sustainable development practices to create a regional identity around the rivers of Beaver County. You can reach Daniel at daniel@getriverwise.com.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Community Matters: Beyond East Palestine
